Barry Diller biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Who invited Barry Diller to the Internet party? In the hip, young world of Internet start-ups, media mogul Barry Diller, owner of the Home Shopping and USA Networks, the Sci-Fi Channel and Ticketmaster, is sometimes regarded as an interloper. But Diller's innovative spirit, which helped invent the television miniseries and launched the brash young Fox Television Network when no one thought a fourth network was possible, is now hard at work integrating old and new media into a commerce empire.

Born in San Francisco, in 1942, Diller grew up in Los Angeles and claims he rarely attended classes on Mondays or Fridays at Beverly Hills High School.He dropped out of UCLA after four months, but his friend Marlo Thomas helped him get a job in the mailroom at the William Morris Agency. Three years later, Diller was a full-fledged talent agent. In 1966, he became a programming assistant at ABC and steadily rose to the position of vice president. Along the way, he invented the made-for-TV movie and launched the TV miniseries Roots. In 1974, he took a job as chairman and chief executive of Paramount Studios and turned the flagging company around with hits including Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

Creation of the Fox Network

In 1984, he joined Twentieth Century-Fox where he created the Fox Television Network, which changed the television landscape by attracting a young, male audience with shows like The Simpsons and Married with Children. Diller, known for his tough-talking, volatile personality, left the company in 1992 after having a falling out with Rupert Murdoch (owner of Fox's parent company). Later that year, Diller bought shopping channel QVC, and also tried to purchase Paramount and later CBS, losing both bids. In 1995, Diller began amassing his own media empire, becoming chairman of the Home Shopping Network, and acquiring USA and the Sci-Fi Channel. In 1997, he became part owner of Ticketmaster. The following year, he merged Ticketmaster's online arm with Citysearch, a provider of local online city guides. The combination transformed Citysearch into an e-commerce venture, and the combined company, called Ticketmaster Online-Citysearch, went public in 1999.

Internet Mogul

Diller continued his online expansion as Citysearch acquired two online dating sites, a job listing service, and created CityAuction to satisfy the growing demand for online auctions.